Joshua
by Lastavica
Summary: Or, that time Natasha watched "War Games".


_"Shall we play a game? [Natasha smiles and turns to Steve.] It's from a movie that-"_

 _"Yeah, I saw it."_

. . .

"Hey, Romanoff."

Nastasha looked up from her work. She was seated cross legged on the floor, getting up to speed on her next assignment. The knock on the door wasn't gentle, but it wasn't forceful either. Agent Barton's voice was muffled on the other side. After only two short months of being partnered up with him, she could tell he was in cheerful mood even from behind a door.

Natasha put aside the file that lay open on her lap and got up. Her bare feet made no sound as she crossed the carpet to the door.

"What is it, Clint?" She answered evenly, not yet opening the door. It had taken some getting used to, calling him by his first name, but he'd been persistent on the matter.

"One of the flight crew has a big dvd collection, so I borrowed a classic from him."

What Clint meant when he said "borrow", was take. The crew member he spoke of was a person who liked to hear himself talk. A lot. However, Clint had taken note when the man had gone on and on about his "sweet movie collection". So that morning, instead of asking and then getting stuck listening to an endless monologue, Clint simply took to the vents, hopped down into the correct quarters and grabbed a movie from the extensive array. He planned to return it in the same manner.

"Ok." was all Natasha said.

"Ok?"

"Is there something you needed?" She asked.

There was a brief silence on the other side of the door and then "Are you working?"

Natasha didn't respond.

"It's our day off. You'll like this movie. There're Russians, with nukes."

Natasha's mouth twitched with the tiniest smirk. She opened the door. Agent Barton was standing there with a nearly expressionless face, except for the fact that his eyes seemed to be hiding a grin.

"So where do we watch this?" She asked.

"Empty conference room. Huge monitor." Then he turned and headed down the corridor. Natasha went back into her room to get her shoes. She locked her door and followed Barton.

Inside the conference room, Clint blacked out the glass walls, readied the movie and produced a six pack of beer from where he'd already stashed it under the table. Natasha sat down in one of the comfortable black swivel chairs as Clint cracked open a can and handed it to her. He sat down, put his feet up on the table, popped open his beer and hit 'play'.

"War Games? That's what it's called?"

"Just watch it." He said, feigning exasperation.

Natasha didn't have many movies in her repertoire. The few films she'd watched were quiet, usually very sad, and often in french. She had seen them at a time in her life where dark theaters in European cities were a safe place to hide or bandage wounds without drawing attention.

Clint, on the other hand, had seen "War Games" when he was thirteen. Rick, the contortionist in the circus, had a vcr in his trailer. He also had a habit of going out drinking with the trapeze guys on their nights off. On those nights, Barney and Clint would borrow (take) a scooter from one of their fellow carnies, ride into whatever town they were in and rent a movie. Then they would sneak into Rick's trailer, pop in the tape and settle in for the show. One of those times they rented "War Games" and Clint remembered enjoying it. He had seen a lot of movies that way.

Natasha ended up finding the movie funny and chuckled through portions of it. Clint found her amusement funny. There was no humor to laugh at. It was the absurdity and lack of realism that tickled her. He had half expected her to be one of those people who couldn't suspend disbelief and she was.

"That was incredibly stupid." She said, when the screen finally went dark. She took a sip of beer and looked at Clint.

"I didn't like it as much as I remember." He said. "But Joshua's still cool." He was about to get up when Natasha suddenly spoke.

"Shall we play a game?" she said, computer voice and all.

He looked at her. She wore a small smile. Clint chuckled and took another sip of his beer.

* * *

.

 ** _This is just a fun little thing I couldn't leave alone._**

 ** _That scene in Cap 2 where Natasha and Steve are in Dr. Zola's computer brain vault and Natasha starts to type on the old Macintosh style computer. Green letters on the black screen. She references the 1983 movie, "War Games", quoting the movie's artificial intelligence named Joshua, with his speak-and-spell type voice._**

 ** _First of all, I loooove that Steve had at some point sat through that whole movie. Because of their life circumstances, both Steve and Natasha are the two least likely to have seen an 80's movie. However Steve's been catching up on the last 70+ years, but Natasha? When would she have ever seen that on her own? Red Room? Freelance assassin? Of course not!_**

 ** _Which led me straight to our favorite partner in crime. Good old Hawkeye!_**

 ** _Hope you enjoyed. :)_**


End file.
